Texas’ Wendy Davis Out-Raises Greg Abbott in Second Half of 2013, ‘On Track’ to $40 Million

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis out-raised her presumed Republican opponent for the governor's seat, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, during the second half of 2013. (CBSNews)

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) out-raised her presumed Republican opponent for the governor’s seat, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, during the second half of 2013. According to campaign finance documents filed this week, Davis took in $12.2 million across three different fundraising committees, while Abbott took in $11.5 million.

Abbott’s overall campaign chest is more robust, however, as the attorney general reports that he raised $16.3 million total in 2013 and has $27 million in cash on hand. Davis has not released her cash-on-hand numbers.

Davis officially declared her gubernatorial candidacy in October and did not expressly begin collecting campaign funds for that position until then, while Davis’ three fundraising committees began collecting funds at different times and have slightly different functions. Her most robust fund is an older, general “Wendy R. Davis Candidate/Officeholder” coffer, which holds about $4.5 million; her “Wendy R. Davis For Governor, Inc.” fund holds about $4.2 million, and the “Texas Victory Committee,” a combined effort between the Davis campaign and Battleground Texas, holds about $3.5 million.

Davis, who became a name on the national political stage after her summer 2013 filibuster against Texas’ omnibus anti-abortion bill, received 84,704 small-batch donations of $50 or less from across all 254 Texas counties, according to her fundraising report.

Abbott staffers have derided Davis’ fundraising report as the result of “fuzzy math,” while one of her long-time advisors told the San Antonio Express-News that she’s “on track” to raise the more than $40 million she’s expected to need to beat Abbott in a statewide election.